Students

Student Spotlight

Undergraduate Researchers Continue to Impress

April 10-12 are exciting days for USF's undergraduate researchers who will be presenting their research at the 2024 OneUSF Undergraduate Research Conference. This year, nearly 600 undergraduate researchers will be presenting 300 unique research projects across our three campuses. The event is free and open to the public. RSVP to attend on the Sarasota campus on April 10 or the Tampa campus on April 12. No RSVP is need for the St. Petersburg campus event on April 11. Times and locations for each event can be found on the Conference page. 

Global Citizens Award recipients

This Fall semester 27 students completed the Global Citizens Award. The Global Citizens Award program was launched in 2015, and the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs, were adopted as an integral part of the award’s framework. The 17 SDGs provide a comprehensive framework for reaching a more sustainable and equitable future for ALL and cover a broad range of complex problems from eliminating poverty to achieving gender equality to responding appropriately to climate change. Students are exposed to the SDGs from our orientation session and are asked to connect every single one of their experiences to a Sustainable Development Goal, as we promote an environment where students are intentionally thinking and reflecting on how their current actions and learning adventures connect to global perspectives.  

Since 2015, The HIPUR office has launched global pathways in multiple majors, hosted Sustain-a-Bull workshops, and launched Operation: Global Action, a virtual study abroad program. In Fall 2023 Ceremony we will have recognized 898 students who are committed to making the planet more just and sustainable. 

The students being honored have accomplished incredible feats on their journeys to becoming global citizens. To us, being a global citizen means many things, but at the heart of it all is being able to engage meaningfully and effectively with diverse people, places, events, challenges, and opportunities. It means being immersed willingly in new cultures or viewpoints through our global events. Each scholar had their own path in completing the award. Some have conducted global research or taken on an internship with a global focus. Others have taken globally focused courses or advanced foreign language studies. Still others have studied abroad or volunteered in the communities.

The 27 scholars we have this semester completed over 135 hours of internships. They’ve given back 450 hours of service at USF and within the community. They’ve taken 174 credit hours of GCPC-certified and advanced foreign language courses. This group has also had study abroad experiences in Italy, the United Kingdom, Ghana, France, the Dominic Republic, and Greece. These students represent 13 different majors and are graduating from 4 USF colleges. Many students are aiming for the medical field from public health and biomedical sciences. We have future businessmen and women, dentists, quantitative analysts, human resource practitioners, and more. 

Interested in receiving the Global Citizens Award? More on this page! 

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UndergradUATE Research Poster Proposals

The Office of High Impact Practices and Undergraduate Research hosts a Research course entitled Undergraduate Research or IDS 2912. 

This course walks students step by step through the process. IDS 2912,  is a course that unites students across majors who are interested in improving their understanding of what research is and finding out how to obtain a faculty mentor for their research pursuits. This semester Ms. Nicole Roberts taught IDS 2912 which consisted of 9 students. 

The Research Abstracts titles were: Investigating the Lack of Diversity in Tech Industry by Tien Dao, A Meta-Analysis of Previous Works in Mitigating Bias in Named Entity Recognition (NER) by My Duong, Blood Transfusion in the United States by Emma Huffman, Urbanization of Central Florida and the Decline in Sandhill Crane Populations and the Habitat Types They Live In by Hannah Kollinger, Advancements in Robotics and Autonomous Systems by Hyelampa Thlala Kolo, AI and the Effectiveness of Studying by Samuel Leslie, Understanding the Impact of Modernization and Technology on Health and Tradition: A Study of Loma Linda's Seventh-Day Adventist Community by Ekta Mangat, Sustainable Energy Transition in Bangladesh: Economic Feasibility Study by Tahia Mantaka, and Understanding the Relationship Between Mental Health and Physical Ability of Adolescents by Moksh Patel

Ms. Roberts says, "As the instructor for IDS 2912 - Research Experience at USF, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and am incredibly proud of the students' hard work throughout the semester. It was truly inspiring to witness their dedication and enthusiasm for research, evident in the outstanding quality of their research proposals. The students demonstrated remarkable initiative, critical thinking, and a genuine passion for their chosen topics. Their commitment to the course not only reflects their individual growth but also contributes to the overall academic excellence of USF as a Preeminent State Research University. Congratulations to all students and I can't wait to see all they accomplish in future research!"

Congratulations to our IDS 2912 students on their research proposal posters for their final exams! They were such interesting topics and all of us in the HIPUR office are excited to see where research takes you in the future!

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Student of the Year

In recognition of her exemplary service to both the Office of High Impact Practices and Undergraduate Research (HIPUR) and the students which it serves, Ms. Bethany Jowers has been named HIPUR's first Student of the Year.

Ms. Jowers is a rising senior at the University of South Florida majoring in Biomedical Sciences and World Languages and Cultures: Spanish and Latin American Studies. During her time at USF, she has been given many opportunities for research involvement and has presented individual and group projects in multiple university, state, and national conferences. Off-campus, she has served as a research intern and internship coordinator for the Tampa General Hospital Transplant Institute. She has helped to create investigations during her community service at the USF Health Ybor Youth Clinic and the USF BRIDGE Clinic to improve care for underserved populations in the Tampa Bay area.

In Fall 2023, Ms. Jowers completed her grant-funded Honors thesis research after conducting community health surveys in the Dominican Republic during an Honors Experience Abroad. Ms. Jowers says, "she is grateful to the USF faculty and staff who have supported her during her research journey, and is always looking for ways to help other students access similar opportunities."

Ms. Jowers is a brilliant, dedicated scholar and servant leader who exemplifies the very best in our amazing students. Congratulations to her on a well-deserved honor!

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Research Scholar Awardees

The USF Undergraduate Research Scholar Award recognizes a student’s commitment to their development as a researcher during their undergraduate tenure. Below is the list of students who have received this honor.

• Magdelena Alvarez, Communication Science and Disorders
• Jaidon Angel, Communication Science and Disorders
• Lena Bayyat, Communication Science and Disorders
• Jade Brown, Communication Science and Disorders
• Aisha Bazlamatci, Interdisciplinary
• Samuel Camilli, Health Science
• Presley Camp, Social Science
• Samantha Deveaux, Health Sciences
• Iman Elkolalli, Communication Science and Disorders
• Christine Grossman, Psychology
• Cassandra Hendry, Communication Science and Disorders
• Jacob Hensley, Engineering
• Jacqueline Houston, Social Work
• Yuri Lizardo, Communication Sciences and Disorders
• Anna Beatriz Cortes Machado, Physical Science
• Ebu Ojogwu, Health Science
• Jessica O'Reilly, Communication Science and Disorders
• Mackenzie Osborne, Psychology
• Perdita Samuel-Lopez, Communication Science and Disorders
• Abigail Reed, Interdisciplinary
• Shanon Rego, Cell and Molecular Biology
• Evelyn Spiller, Public Health
• Karly Underwood, Social Science
• Cindy Yang, Biomedical Science and Anthropology
• Haley Vantoorenburg, Physical Science
• Gabrielle Whyte, Humanities
• Breanna Zurita, Communication Sciences and Disorders

2023 Undergraduate Research Conference

Select categories below to see the names and disciplines of the 2023 USF Undergraduate Research Conference award winners.